Italy

<map lat='41.96765920367816' lng='12.4365234375' zoom='5' view='0' float='right' height='500'/> In Italy hitchhiking is a bit less common than in France or Germany, but it's very well possible.

You can get a free map of whole Italy at almost every gas station (autogrill) with all gas stations listed in the map.

Info

Even though most Italians say not to speak English they seem to understand a lot of English. They also claim to not speak Spanish if you ask them, but they will almost always understand a whole lot of Spanish. Hitchhiking is autostop in Italian. Just say autostop and your destination or show your thumb, otherwise they often think you are asking how to get somewhere, as Italy has a lot of tourists. The northern part of Italy is quite safe, but take care in the south of Italy.

Italy is in the Schengen treaty, and so are France and Austria, but Switzerland and Slovenia are not. Border crossing will be no problem at all.

Hitchhiking (Il)legal?

Roads are often not laid out for bicyclists and pedestrians, which makes it harder to walk towards and to find good spots. Hitchhiking on the autostrada is not legal (there are big signs saying no autostop at all highway entries), but it is unclear whether this extends to gas stations (area servizi) on the autostrada -- even to the Italians. It's probably just meant to stop people from walking on highways. An American that encountered police (polizia, who drive light blue cars) at an area servizio on the highway was simply warned not to walk on the autostrada and to stay at the station until finding a ride. If you're on a gas station it's a good idea to stay on friendly terms with the staff. When starting, it's probably a good idea to find a spot before people encounter the no autostop sign; once you have passage onto the autostrada it is fairly simple to skip from one service area to the next until you arrive at your destination. It's less likely that you will encounter problems if you're not Italian -- and, if you speak Italian, don't reveal this to police (or the armed forces carabinieri).

Cities

• Bergamo
• Florence
• Genova
• Milano
• Napoli
• Padova
• Rome
• Torino, Trento
• Venice

Heading North

Take the Highway A23 (in the eastern part of Italy) to Austria (don't try to hitchhike through Switzerland, it's very difficult). Follow the A23 to Villach and Salzburg to get through the Alps very easy. On that way, you will also find a lot of people heading to Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Especially in summertime there are a lot of tourists from Austria and Germany. The new European plates start with a letter on the left side of the plate, representing the Country. Most Austrian (A on plate) and German (D on plate) are on the way to the sea or on their way back from holidays. So if you want to go North or South, try to find Germans or Austrians (they also speak better English than the Italians).